Hello,
I have a four-month-old male kitten and a five-year-old female cat. I feed both of them Purina dry food; him, kitten chow, her, adult cat chow.

He's been eating her food of late, and she's been eating his. They're in two totally opposite ends of the house, so they're clearly more interested in the other's food and aren't simply confused about what belongs to who. However, over the past two days, the kitten has been making some real stinky farts and poops, and this morning we found blood in his poop. I'd describe it as a medium red--not bright, but not really dark. His poops are pretty soft and light coloured. His a-hole looks OK, though--not inflamed.

He's still playful, but he's been looking a bit sad. He's currently on Interceptor as a preventative thing for worms--he's taken two of them so far, and will take another one next month. We also are in the process of getting rid of his ear mites by using Advantage (he came from a very low-income home with like seven other cats--we didn't know he had them til we went to get him!)

This is the first time since we got him two months ago that he's had blood in his poop, though the food has not changed. As far as we were concerned, he was totally fine save for the ear mites. He's been to the vet twice for his shots and a check-up.

Should I feed him something like tuna or yogurt or something more natural? It was hard getting him to eat the Purina when we first got him (he had been eating adult cat Meow Mix since he was born!), so I'm not totally excited at the prospect of changing his food once again. Is there something I can do now, to help him out?

First off Purina is no better than Meow mix. What you need to look for is Wellness, Nature's Variety, Innova, Evo, California Natural or Orijen. All except Orijen have canned foods as well as the dry, some of these brands have grain free foods which are even better for an obligate carnivore such as a cat. Grain free canned is the best food for your cat after a raw diet of course. Male cats especially need the canned food to help prevent crystals/stones in the urine.

When changing an animals food it is best to do it slowly over about two weeks time. Start with 1/4 new food mixed in with 3/4 old after about 5 days you can mix half and half new & old, then after another 5 days or so mix 3/4 new with 1/4 old keep that for a few days then go to 100% new food.

Tuna is not a good choice as it creates an imbalance in Vit E levels and it is also very addictive to cats, and the last thing you want is a cat that will only eat tuna . Yogurt will help to replace the good gut flora & rebalance the natural bacteria levels 1/4 tsp twice a day, or you can also use a probiotic such as PB8 for his age probably 1/2 a capsule twice a day.

As for the blood in the poop being of as you say a medium red colour that usually indicates it is coming from somewhere after the stomach (not digested) likely the intestine or bowels area. Often the straining to poop either too hard or too soft or having diarreah will cause a very small amount of bright red bleeding, but you could also be looking at an internal parasite such as Coccidia which is not covered in treatment with the regular worming meds.

The bad food and changes (from meow mix, to purina kitten, to adult) are likely the cause for the smelly poop and possibly for the blood as well. To be on the safe side bring in a fresh poop sample to the vet for a fecal worm test & ask them to check for coccidia too. For a fecal test you don't need to bring the cats in just the poop . If you are treating and or testing one cat for worms the other should be done as well, it is easy for them to pass it back & forth to each other.

__________________
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Vindication ~ For all those pets who became sick or lost their lives from tainted pet food

I should have been clear about the tuna--I didn't mean feed him only tuna, I meant what should I do *right now.* I gave him some probiotic yogurt last night and he loved it.

When I got Seven (the older cat), I was a university student and was not able, financially speaking, to get her all these fancy foods you list. And I do find 20-25$ for a small bag of food to be kind of expensive, even though I'm in a better position now. I'll check out some stores those foods are available at, anyway, to compare brands and prices.

I myself don't eat meat, so I will not cook/prepare it for my cats, either. Are there specific types of canned food I should look into?

I myself don't eat meat, so I will not cook/prepare it for my cats, either.

Vegetarian here as well. There are pre-packaged raw diets that you can buy at some of the higher-end pet food stores. Nature's Variety is a commonly available one. It's really no different than opening up a can.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TLJ

Are there specific types of canned food I should look into?

Yup, the ones that growler mentioned: Wellness, Innova Evo, Nature's Variety, etc. I'll also add Precise, Eagle Pack, Natural Balance, and Merrick for some variety. There's a good link here on how to pick out a canned food: http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedfoods.htm

I'd also like to add that paying more for quality nutrition means you're very likely to pay less at the vets down the road. Most of the biggest feline illnesses (diabetes, obesity, allergies, IBD, bladder/urinary tract problems, and kidney disease) can be traced back to poor diet.

I just want to echo what Sugarcatmom said. I am studying animal nutrition right now, and I'm learning about all the problems that feeding high carbohydrate foods to a cat can cause. Cats are carnnivores, they have no requirement for grains at all. In fact they lack salivary amalyse to start the digestion of starch in the mouth, this puts a lot of stress on the pancreas to secrete enough enzymes to digest it. So, unfortunatley Urinary tract problems are extremely common, as well as diabetes, obesity and kidney probelms.

Even having your cat on a high quality dry food is not enough, he must also eat wet. This will increase his intake of water, and help prevent urinary tract issues.

I went through a urinary tract infection and struvite crystal problem with my cat, as he was only on dry food before I switched him to raw. Its not fun, lots of money, antibiotics etc. Since being on a low carb biologically appropriate diet he has had no reoccurence of crystals.

Perhaps it was extremely naive of me, but I really hadn't realized the importance of wet food in a cat's diet. All the cats I've ever had in my life ate dry food primarily, and for the most part they lived fairly long lives. I'll be heading to the fancy cat food store this weekend--hopefully I'll be able to find something better for them, and not too, too expensive. Thank you for all of your help. I hope to be reporting a positive update in a few weeks!

It's not all cats that develop problems, but the occurrences of these problems are unfortunately on the rise.

Good luck with your kitty. I think you'll find that although the purchase price may seem steep, your cat will eat less so it won't end up costing you much more. Also, higher quality foods are more digestable...so less litter box clean up!

I'm not a vet but my vet said that if cat stool is too soft that mean the cat is having worm inside their stomach. I blood cometogether with the poopo, i fee it could be serious matter. i think you have to send you cat to vet. Normally i give my cats anti-worm every 3 months to make sure they can live and eat healthier.